Edgartown selectmen want solution to illegal deer carcass dumping

“A lot of them seem to make their way to the shell pile on Meshacket Road,” Mr. Poole said. “There’s not an easy solution. I’d like to suggest we put our heads together and work on it.”

Mr. Poole said state guidelines discourage a burial pit, though it is not illegal for individual hunters to bury a carcass on their own property.

“It gets pretty gross out there,” selectman Michael Donaroma said. “A sign would help, but it would help more if we could put on the sign what you should do.”

Selectmen have received complaints in years past about the dumping of deer carcasses on the shell pile. Mr. Poole said the practice changes the nature of the whole area, which is near a popular walking path.

“If this were easy to solve, we would have solved it several years ago,” Mr. Poole said.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, postponed from Monday by inclement weather, selectmen voted to close a large area of Cape Poge Bay to scalloping. The town’s shellfish committee recommended the action unanimously. The action will allow shellfish constable Paul Bagnall to transfer scallop seed to the closed area for harvesting in future years.

The area just inside Cape Poge Gut, bounded by North Neck, Little Neck, and a point about half way along Cape Poge Elbow, will be closed to commercial and recreational shellfishing on January 1.

“We have the good fortune out at Cape Poge to have a lot of seed,” Mr. Bagnall told selectmen. “As weather permits, we’ll move seed into that area.” Mr. Bagnall will oversee the transfer of immature scallops from the southwestern part of the bay where they are abundant this year.

In other action, town administrator Pam Dolby told the selectmen the town’s personnel committee has recommended a two percent cost of living adjustment for town employees. Selectmen agreed, at the suggestion of the finance and advisory committee, to discuss the issue with other Island town officials at the next all-Island selectmen’s meeting, on January 13, before deciding on pay hikes.